Netflix, still the streaming industry leader after a decade of fierce competition, produces a dizzying array of original content. But the service has sometimes angered fans by making sudden cancellations, even of critical hits like the serial killer procedural “Mindhunter.” While Netflix has never revealed the precise metrics it uses to determine a show’s fate, it is likely a combination of how many viewers watch in the first 30 days and what percentage actually finish out the season.
Earlier this spring, Netflix released the first season of science fiction epic “3 Body Problem,” which was based on an award-winning Chinese book trilogy. The reception was mostly positive, but critical acclaim does not equal viewer retention. Devotees started to fear the worst before the show was renewed for additional episodes last Thursday — but there is no word on how much longer the series will continue. If yet another cancellation occurs, at least the show will be in good company.
‘Black Summer’ (2019-2021)
Kinetic and unpredictable, “Black Summer” breathed new life into the well-worn zombie genre. Its wild first season centered around a handful of plot-armorless characters trying to escape an unfolding zombie apocalypse. In its second season, showrunners Karl Schaefer and John Hyams dramatically expanded the show’s narrative range. In one standout episode, a mom (Jaime King) and her daughter (Zoe Marlett) navigate a house full of seedy human survivors, communicating non-verbally via a threat-assessment card game whose rules are known only to them before unleashing holy hell. Season two ended with the fate of the main cast largely unknown, and Netflix has still not issued a proper cancellation notice, despite never picking the series back up.
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‘1899’ (2022)
“1899” is set on the 19th century steamship Kerberos, which is full of European emigrants to the United States who are all running away from something. The ship receives a distress call from the Prometheus, its sister ship that disappeared months earlier along with Maura’s (Emily Beecham) brother. The Kerboros, against the wishes of almost everyone on board, turns around on a rescue mission. But when they find the Prometheus adrift and empty, strange things begin to happen. Created by the team behind the mind-bending German time-loop series “Dark,” “1899” ended on an unexplained twist when Netflix pulled the plug on the pricey production, leaving fans in eternal limbo.
‘Archive 81’ (2021)
In “Archive 81,” Mamoudou Athie plays Dan, an archivist hired by a mysterious rich guy to restore a series of tapes made by an anthropology grad student named Melody (Dina Shihabi) in the 1990s. Melody was interviewing the residents of a New York City high-rise apartment building with a dark past, and it isn’t long before Dan gets drawn into a vortex of the occult in his attempt to determine her fate and understand why he is being asked to do this job in the first place. To its credit, the show did give the audience some answers about what was going on in the building — but we will never know what happened to Dan and Melody, as Netflix didn’t order a second season.
‘The Chair’ (2021)
While there are hundreds of shows about lawyers, doctors and detectives, professors have mostly been an afterthought. So when Netflix released “The Chair,” a show centered around English professor Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) as she is thrust into the role of department chair at the fictional Pembroke College, it got the attention of academics everywhere. Kim is given the impossible task of reconciling the department’s old guard, including Elliot (Bob Balaban), with younger faculty like Yaz (Nana Mensah); she must also handle the fallout after her friend and crush Bill (Jay Duplass) sarcastically does a Nazi salute in class and gets himself canceled. The superb cast and sharp writing made for compelling viewing, even if its realism was disputed. Netflix pulled the plug without resolving Bill’s fate.
‘Space Force’ (2020-2022)
Steve Carrell headlined this goofy comedy as Mark Naird, a dim-witted general tasked with running America’s celestial military wing. Here, Carrell plays yet another version of the well-meaning workplace ditz he popularized on “The Office,” as Naird not only repeatedly bungles the rollout of the titular Space Force, but also struggles to manage contentious relationships with his teenage daughter Erin (Diana Silvers) and his ex Maggie (Lisa Kudrow). The show ended on one of the most outlandish cliffhangers imaginable: an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth as John Malkovich leads a who’s who of contemporary comedians in a singalong of The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo.”
